Checkmat Bjj - 29-5-12

Tuesday night was a very hot, very muggy night out at La Gym, Bristol, to train under the returning Chico Mendes (2nd Grade Black Belt). It was great to train back under Chico again after his looooong trip away, first to Brazil, to see his family, then to the USA, to train with a whole host of people, including Dan Henderson (lucky bast).

It's good to have Chico back though as his level of training and instruction is just phenomenal, his attention to fine details is first class. In fact I think it would be safe to say that Chico's knowledge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is close to encyclopaedic and to have access to that level of expertise is a real gift.

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol, Uk - Bristol Combat Legion
Instructor: Chico Mendes - Checkmat.

Warm up:
We started with laps of the mat with butt kicks and knee ups, facing in for a lap and facing out for a lap, then 3 steps facing in, 3 steps facing out for a lap, then mat touches for a few laps. We then did two lengths of the mat with hip escapes, one length of front rolls and one length of back rolls.


Techniques:

First thing we were started on was stand up techniques for grips and shooting. Chico ran us through a few tips for stand up including how best to grip the collar - using the elbow down into opponents chest technique so he can't duck under your arm and take your back - and to not let the opponent get the grips he wants.
We drilled the first few things in pairs before moving on. I was paired with Marcus.


Moving us on from there, Chico showed us his preferred Pulling guard technique. When you collar and elbow tie up together, your opponent has one arm extended, most likely gripping your collar. You are to be gripping that extended arm at the elbow. That is the side of your opponents body you should be concentrating on for your guard pull. You can use your foot on that side of you to push against his hip and then sit back and off side slightly. Your foot on his hip will stop him from passing on that side and basically helps to control his whole position in relation to you. Your other foot is off to the side  and can be hung out wide to stop any pass attempts or be ready to use for a sweep attempt or sub attempt. The triangle is a particularly good attack from this position.



Next up was the Shoot for Takedown into Pull guard. While you're collar and elbow tied, fire the guys arm up so you can shoot in for the takedown as usual. Whilst in the shoot position the guys sprawls, you need to bring your outer leg back in to either go between the opponents leg and bring him down in your half guard or hook the leg and bring the other inside too, to get the butterfly.


The next couple of techniques work if you've gone for the shoot takedown and the guy sprawls well to put you in the Turtle (Guard) position. The first of the two move had you put you head out of the turtle near his lower ribs and then base your leg out on that same side - leg needs to be braced at a right angle so the knee is underneath you arm, so the opponent can't collapse you in your turtle. You can now sit out under with your other leg and come out at the side, the arm that was braced by your outside leg can now be used to push the guys to the side so you can take his back. Beautiful technique this one.
The second one involves you putting your head at one side the same as before, but this time the basing leg goes out at the other side. You can now use your other leg to sit in to half guard, with a strong underhook in place. Now if you use the your outside leg to trap his secured leg and pull it out and away, it makes it easy for you to use the underhook to shunt the guy up so you can duck under and take his back. Another nice move.
I loved both of these techniques and will definitely be trying to push them in to my standard game. Brilliant.




Situational Rolling:

Next up was a bit of situational rolling. In pairs for 6 minutes. We did 2 minutes of stand up, the object being to takedown of successfully pull guard. 2 minutes of one guy in closed guard, then another two with the other guy in closed, object there for the top guy to pass, bottom guy to sweep. It was so friggin' hot though that I was running on fumes so I really don't remember much for a blow by blow account.
I paired off with Marcus first. Don't remember much about it.

Second was with the returning and recently renamed Jason Brooksbank. Why he wanted to move the S in his name I have no idea, :o))   (I'm such a dillon).
Think Jase got a decent takedown on me. Jase is quite a short guy but he's freakishly strong for his size and I was already gassed to fuck by this time so I was not having a good time in the stand up. I managed to pass his guard effectively though which was a bonus though. I can't remember if I swept him or not, or if he passed my guard or not. Good roll though. Always is with Jase.


At that point I flaked a bit and sat out a round as I was seriously over heating. The airflow in that gym is tragic at best and I needed to pound back a massive amount of water and stand next to the fan to cool off for a bit. I wasn't alone though as Mario Saeed kept me company next to the fan and we bantered about the recent UFC event (Dos Santos v Mir) a bit to kill the six minutes.


So it was only fair that me and Mario paired off after that. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for Mario), Chico decided to make it 2 minutes stand up, 2 minutes guard, then another 2 minutes stand up. Now Mario regularly trains MMA so his wrestling is pretty shit hot. I didn't give it enough credit to begin with as he dummied me then shot in for a takedown that was so fast I didn't even get close to sprawling. I was flat on my back before I knew it. The rest of the round involved me either pulling guard or, on one occasion, letting him attempt the trip takedown and then over balancing him to land on top. For the guard play we had a damn good round with me sweeping Mario early, then him going all out trying to pass my guard and getting to side control, but he was unable to hold it for more than a second as I was able to break out and return to guard. From there Mario was trying to lean in on me so In Tomoe nage'd (monkey flipped) him over my head and landed in mount. I was particularly chuffed with this as it's the first time I can ever remember hitting this move in full strength sparring.


To finish up the session we had a free roll. I rolled against Marcus. He pulled guard first and I managed to pass to half guard top. From there I was able to gift wrap his arm across his face and use it to pull him up and take back. From there I struggled for quite some time before I was able to hit a Bow and Arrow on him. Next off I pulled guard. We struggled for a while in that position but I was eventually able to hit the very same Tomoe Nage on Marcus, flipping over and immediately hitting the arm bar. I think I hit another arm bar on him from somewhere else too but I can't for the life of me remember where. I'm fairly certain I faired so well because Marcus didn't sit out a round and was looking absolutely roasted.

That was the end of the session and to be honest I was a bit gutted. I would've loved to roll againat that point but alas, it was not meant to be. Great session though. Shame that's it for me now for about 9 days due to the stupid smelly bank holiday and the fact that I'm on call. Ah well. Let's me rest up and heal a bit. Can't get enough of this amazing art/sport though. ¬m/

DV8 Acedemia de Jiu Jitsu - 24-5-12

I've had a bit of a wild long weekend (had Friday off) this week, hence why I'm only just getting around to writing up Thursday's lesson. Training with the DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu under Ian Rossiter at Sweat FA in Weston and it was one of the most well attended classes we've had there for a while, which bodes well for the future as everyone in attendance seemed to be of the more committed type. Great times for the new club and our instructor, Ian, whose just had the club under his name added to the Checkmat World Wide Website. Exciting stuff. Congratulations to Ian for that as he's now officially recognised as a Checkmat instructor thanks to our Bristol instructor and head coach, Chico Mendes, having him added. Great achievement.

Not an official logo, I've just been fucking about.

With the addition of Glenn Cutter to the fold I am no longer the most "experienced" blue belt in the club and as Ian took his time getting changed due to some extensive tattoo work he's had done (that very day, the nutter), Glenn took us for the warm up. 

Which was; Laps of the mat, touching hands to the floor as we go around at Glen's direction. Butt kicks, Knee ups. Upper body stretches. 40 x Sit ups, 40 x Push ups, 30 x Sit ups. Legs Stretches. It sounds like a brief warm up but it really wasn't and frankly, as the heat had risen quite dramatically too, we were all pretty much sweating our asses off by the end of it. Yeah, Cheers Glenn :o|  

Techniques:

As there's been a spate of newer guys joining the team recently, Ian started us off with a nice basic Upa drill. You start laying on you back with your knees bent so your heels can be drawn up to touch your butt (feet flat on the floor). You then bridge up on your feet and one shoulder, turning your head toward that direction and bringing your arms up in that direction (as if you were pushing a guy up and over). You then switch your legs, bring your nearside leg (the one on the side you're turning toward) under the other and turn your upper body so you end on all fours. We all did this a few times.

We then did the drill with a partner. The guy has you mounted, you pick which side you're turning over toward and secure his arm on that side. You also bring your foot on that side out so it's positioned outside of his leg so it's stops him from basing out. You now use the Upa movement to turn him over and land in his guard. Always been a favourite mount escape of mine. I drilled it with Glenn.



Ian continued the technique on in to turn it into a sequence so the next technique was the Upa to Guard then Smash Pass. So once you've Upa'd to land in your opponents guard this technique works under the premise that the guy would've instantly closed guard. First off, to break the guard, Ian favours the knee up ass guard break. Grab one of your opponent's arms at the wrist and push it down hard against his hips. Push down against his hips with your other hand too. Now push your other side knee (other side to the secured arm) hard against his butt and step out and to the side with your other leg. You can now sit back, taking your weight with your other leg, enabling your back to put force on his crossed legs, while the knee pushing against his rear forces him to break his closed guard. From there you reach back behind one of his legs and press the leg up toward him uncomfortably, reaching that arm across to grab his opposite side collar. It can help to distract the opponent if you grab quite deep and press the forearm against his neck. Now push your weight forward against his raised leg until the point where he feels uncomfortable enough to try and push back with his leg, by which point you can duck your head to slip the leg and come up in side control.
I drilled this move and the rest of the class with Rich Presley.


Next move in the sequence is one I use quite a lot to transition from Side Control to Mount. You've blasted passed his guard with your smash pass to get to side control. Now, ensuring you have good downward pressure on your opponent to keep him in place, you switch your legs to face down toward his feet so your bottom leg is pressed against his nearside leg. You can now grab his gi pants at the far knee and do a high kick up and over to get to mount.
With that being the end of the sequence we could do the whole lot against our training partner then he could do exactly the same to back as one continuous drill. A very good sequence that teaches you a way to defend from a poor position, attack a guard and transition to a highly advantageous position. This drill is fantastic for the newer guys to get down to memory as it gives them a good option from a few positions.


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Next up Ian ran us through some Wrist Grip Battles Techniques from a standing position. Standing face to face, your opponent grabs your wrist and you escape. If the guy grabs your wrist with his hand down, you pull your arm down and away to break his grip easily. It he takes an upward grip, you pull the arm up and away (as if hitch hiking). If he takes a double hand grip (although, why would he? you have a free hand to pulp his face with then), you reach inside with your other hand to grab your secure hand and pull it up and through hard. These grip break techniques should be virtually fool proof unless your being gripped by a guy with gorilla like strength. Me and Rich had no trouble breaking each others grips with the correct technique.




From the we moved on to a Standing Head Lock Defence - Trip to Side Control Arm Bar. Your opponent has you gripped around the neck in a side head lock. No concern from being choked out with this position but you're very limited as to what you can do from it while he has the option to try and repeatedly punch you in the face. Your first move must be (while defending your face with your outside hand) to reach behind him and grab his punching arm and pull it into him to hamper his ability to punch you. You can now stretch your near side leg out long behind him and use your free hand to pull at the crook of his near side knee to upset his balance and trip him over your extended leg.
We drilled this first part a bit before being moved on.

From there (on floor in a sort of side control with opponents back presented but still in headlock position), you push your far side knee (knee the furthest from the opponents head) into his back and use your forearm to press against his neck, first pressing down into the neck, then scooping upward to apply tight pressure on his carotid artery, making him quickly release the hold.It's just a quick movement from there to secure his arm and pass your near side leg over the opponent's head, then fall back for the really tight arm bar. Nice move, comes on really tight.


Rolling:

As I'm writing this a few days later I'll struggle with a full blow by blow account.

I rolled with Rich first. Pulled guard, hit him with a sweep to side, then transitioned to mount. Bucked the escape to land in S Mount and went for the Bow and Arrow. He managed to shake off my first attempt as I couldn't get the leg over the shoulder and he had a good protective grip at his lapel. I switched back to S Mount though, reset and went for it again. Got the leg around on the second try and got the tap.


Rolled next with Marcus who issued me with the bad news that he can't train on Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes :o(  While we were starting off our roll I was in between berating him for this and trying to find ways we could get a little session in somehow (there isn't a way). I managed to get to a side control position with my knee up against his nearside, then we stopped for a second so I could ask him a question about Monday. He answered the question, we then slapped hands to continue and I fell backward for a cheeky little arm bar. Marcus is under the impression that all the talking and the clap of hands to restart was just a set up for the arm bar. What ever. He probably deserves it for lunching me out on Monday and Tuesday ;o) Hehehe.


Next up was Tom Hill. Tom's a strong lad for his size and always put everything into his sparring. Traded guards and sweeps but other than that the roll was pretty uneventful. Tom rolled hard and managed to stymie all my attacks well. Fair play to him.


Last up was one of the newer guys, Cameron Rothery.  Cameron didn't have a gi on but I knew that he has done some MMA on the Wednesday night classes down at Sweat FA and I asked him whether he had much experience, to which he said yes. We than clapped hands to start and he attempted to dive straight toward me in a bull rush style to which I was easily able to redirect him using an arm drag and then take his back. I was quickly able to tap him out there with a Bow and Arrow. We reset and he started in pretty much the same way. This time I just knocked his arms out of the way and Guillotined him. After that I realised that he maybe had less experience than he'd originally made out so I showed him a few things. I particular how to start a sparring session without charging straight at the guy like a bull. It went well and Cameron seemed quite thankful.

At the end we had some photos taken by Glenn (hence why he's not in it).

There was a big buzz after the lesson too, everyone feeling pretty chuffed with how the club is coming along. Good stuff.

Until next week (it's now this week) ¬m/

Two Man Training. 21-22/5/12

I've had another amazing couple of training sessions at lunchtimes on Monday and Tuesday this week. My good buddy, Marcus (Hedley) and I have really beaten the shite out of each other for the sakes of sharpening up our skill sets at our favourite form of martial art. As we plan to be continuing on with, Monday was Gi day and Tuesday was No Gi.

Monday:

After my total planning failure last week in the technique department, relying on Marcus to do it all, this week I planned ahead fantastically. I decided to theme the session on Guard Passing as it's an area that can get quite rusty if not practised and drilled suitably (which is true of all aspects of the game really, I've just found passing to be the most rust gaining).

First off we started with basic methods to break closed guard. Getting the knee inside was first. On your knees with the opponent's closed guard tight around your waist. You get a double grip on his belt and push yourself back, sprawling your legs out behind to make the space in his closed guard for you to bring one leg forward and put the knee in. Now you can sit back down and the knee inside takes up to much space for the closed guard to be kept by all but the lankiest of guys.

Next guard break method was to stand. You're kneeling in his closed guard. Grab one of his arms at the sleeve cuff and force it down to his waist. The other hand grabs his belt or his gi at the waist. You can then push down on this hold to lift your hind quarters up enough to jump your legs back to a standing position.. From there it's just a simple matter of using one of your hands (either will do) to push down on one of his legs at the knee to break the closed guard. Usually very easy but if your opponent has Herculean leg strength you can push down with both hands on the same knee. This will work every time.

Another one using the standing position. On knees in closed guard. Put both your hands on the opponents hips and use the same motion as before to get to your feet (legs going back stops the guy from securing one of your legs). This time, reach back with a hand and force it between the opponents crossed feet and your back and push your arm deep in then forward (leaning your weight against his leg whilst doing this) to easily break open the guard and start into the smash pass.

The last guard break we hit was a new one on me. On knees in closed guard. Stand using one of the methods from before, and press both of your knees into the opponent's butt, then squat. The pressure of the knees in his rear whilst you squat to make space, should open his guard quite easily.

We drilled all those pretty quickly, both acknowledging that it's pretty rare to find yourself in closed guard these days.


The first pass we did was the Single Stack Pass. You're kneeling in his open guard. Reach behind one of his legs and up and across to his opposite side collar (as if for a smash pass). It can help to distract the opponent if you grab quite deep and press the forearm against his neck. Now push your weight forward against his raised leg and reach back with your other hand to grab his belt or gi pants near the small of his back and pull up so as to stack him up. Now you can push even further against his raised leg, turning his legs to the side (away from the passing side) and then duck your head around his leg and come over into side control.

We also did a pretty cool alternative to that one where the guy resists against the full stack or manages to keep moving away from your passing side (or you could even go for this cause it looks cooler). Same set up but when you reach down for the belt and pull him up, put a bit of welly into it and flip the guy over to turtle. In the scramble you can easily take his back or at least get a rear mounted half hook and seat belt control. I loved this move and will definitely be trying to add it to my Adrenalin Brain repertoire. A great way to skip a few steps in your guard passing game.


Next pass was a Double Stack. In open guard and you get both of your arms under his legs (so only your head is inside). You then stack the guy up using your body weight so his legs are crushed toward him and smash pass as usual. Remember to crush the forearm into the neck as a distraction whilst doing this.

From the same sort of set up comes the Over Under Pass from Double Underhooks. You've got the both arms under the opponent's legs. Bring one of your legs up and out and then press the shin of that leg against his same side shin to trap his leg in that position. Now bring your arm underhook on that side, out and overhook the leg. Now crescent kick your other leg up and over the top to land on your back, quickly scissor switching your legs then, to get to side control. This pass sounds more complex than it is and once you've go it, it's quite a handy little number to know.

Another little variant from the double underhook set up is the sit out pass. You've got the double underhook position and you push both the opponents legs in one direction (left or right) then, using your leg on the side you've pushed the legs toward, sit out in the other direction effectively ducking under the legs and shrug the legs away so you can pop up into side control. I absolutely loved the simplicity of this pass. Another for the insta-memory.


The next up was a nice flashy looking pass. In open guard, both your knees are inside forcing his legs apart. Have one hand grabbing his gi front at the waist, the other hand grabs his gi pants at the knee. Then, duck your head down toward his midriff and off to one side (the side with the gi front grip). Now roll onto your shoulder (right on his belly) firing your legs up in the air and over the top of the leg that you have held down with the gi pant grip, taking you over into side control. Ace pass. Looks cool. I will be hitting this a lot in the future.


The last few passes were for against ButterFly Guard. First up was a kick out pass. In the guys butterfly guard and you've managed to push his back to the ground. Holding his gi pants at both knees you kick one of your legs far back and then bring it in close to the other leg so it's passed around it's respective hook. You should now be in butterfly half guard with the hook clenched between your leg and your arm on the off side restrain the passed leg away. Now pushing away against the remaining hook while you kick out and over with the same leg as before you should be able to neatly pass into side control. Now I know exactly what I was talking about there but reading it back makes it sound quite complicated. Basically, you're doing a kick out to pass one leg, then the same again to pass the second. It's a reliable move and I was able to use it later in rolling against Marcus.

There was another Butterfly Guard pass after which was essentially the same flip pass as before, applied to the Butterfly. Hands gripping his knees. Lay in close and put your head against his lower ribs on one side, then roll your shoulder into his gut and kick your legs in the air and flip over his hook on the other side. Got to kick up really high though so he can't stick his legs in the air to follow you and maintain guard.


Last one was a real gem. The Cradle Pass of Butterfly Guard. The opponent is in a sit up butterfly guard position. You grab his head in a near guillotine style, cupping his chin. With your other arm you grab under his leg on the other side. Now you can roll him over in a cradle style, turning over onto on to your back in the process. A quick rotation of your hips and using your arm (the under leg cradle arm) to push his legs away you can come up neatly into North South. Lovely move.


After all that we found there wasn't a lot of time for rolling. we only managed to get about 10 - 15 minutes in but it was pretty intense and I found myself trying out a lot of the stuff I'd been drilling that day. A good packed session.


Tuesday:

Moving back to No-Gi for Tuesday, we decided to do some takedowns into leg locks. For this I'd basically watched a shit load of YouTube footage and copy and pasted some links to an email sent to my Iphone so I could re-watch them as we need them. Technology these days is friggin' amazing isn't it? If you told me 15 years ago when I was waiting about 5 minutes for one web page to load to my desktop PC (which incidently took up about a fifth of my bedroom space), that one day I'd be able to load video clips to a mobile hand held device in a matter of seconds, I'd probably think you were mad.

Anyway, I started this session straight into the marquee move as I'd been dying to try this one for ages. The Leg Scissor Takedown into Heel Hook is a move made famous by (not created by, but hit in such a dramatic fashion) MMA fighter Ryo Chonan against "The Spider" Anderson Silva, earlier in his career. The move is the leg lock equivalent of a flying arm bar and can turn the tide of a fight to victory in a heartbeat.

Now this was the ultimate aim of our training of this move, obviously without torquing the Heel Hook (never a good idea in training as it's a dangerous move), but the vid I used to help train this from was this next one demonstrated by AJ of Fade MMA. He shows the takedown and detail and then finishes with a different leg lock. We explored all the takedown moves to see which subs came naturally from them. In this vid, AJ shows that you grab the opponent around the back of the head with one hand and then twist around and back step behind your opponent before putting your other hand on the ground and using what was your front leg to scissor takedown the guy. Once he hits the ground it's easy to hit either a Heel Hook, Knee Bar or Toe Hold.

I feared after the sheer awesomeness of that move that I might have peaked to early but there was more to come. The next one we tackled was advertised as a "Palhares style takedown to Heel Hook". Now that title alone says enough for me as Rousimar "Paul Harris" Palhares is the king of the Heel Hook in MMA and one of my favourite fighters. After the way he decimated his opposition at the ADCC (only losing to eventual winner in his weight class, Andre Galvao on points) I have become a bit of a fan. This next vid is a demo by Ken Primola. From a standing back take, you throw one of your legs through his legs and swing it up and over his near side leg as you fall out to the side one your back. This action takes the opponent down into a fantastic position to hit a Heel Hook, but can also set up a nice Toe Hold.

The next video is so fast that you really need to watch in a few times to see what happens. The move is effective though. It works under the premise that you're on your back being attacked by a standing opponent. What you do is attack one leg by wrapping an outside leg around it quite low, then using the knee of your other leg to push against that secured leg to take him down. As he's going down though, the leg you used to push him has hooked behind his other leg and pulls it out so you can roll over coming up with the knee. As I said, it really needs a few watches to get it. Great move though.

The next load of leg locks all came from one vid and were all from one set up. This next vid from Erik Paulson starts from a failed arm bar attempt (from guard) against you. Follow the vid closely to try out each of these locks. I really can't be bothered to type all this out but needless to say, when trying these techniques it's amazing how easy they come on. Me and Marcus both were truly amazed by the simplicity and painfulness of these locks.

The last move we tried out did not feature a takedown but I included it anyway as it looks pretty cool. I saw this in vid of a No Gi grappling match between Vinny Magalhaes and Daniel Gracie. Vinny manages to get Gracie turtled on the floor with one hook in. He crosses his other leg over that hook so he's got a sort of Rear Mount Half Guard control on him. He then reaches across and secures the other leg and rolls over (rolling forward) see he ends on his back and pulls his legs in opposite directions for the "Banana Split". And yes, it's as painful as it sounds when hit tight. Great move though. The move is on the last minute of this following vid.

We followed all these techniques up with a healthier dose of rolling this time and I was quite pleased to see how naturally the leg locks come on. Great days training there, I look forward to the next No Gi sesh as it's really starting to expand my game.

Looking forward to Thursday now for the Ian's DV8 class in Weston. \m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu - 17-5-12

A new name for the club and a new era. And what do you know....... Ian's late. Well it had been prearranged and Ian had left me in charge of the class until he got there. Ooooo the power. The numbers for the nights lesson were brilliant with more guys turning up than had for a while. It'll be nice to see if we can keep some of the new guys as they seem very enthusiastic. We were also graced with the presence of old SJJA face, Glen Cutter, a blue belt from the old Burnham class who'd taken a considerable amount of time out from Jiu Jitsu but decided to take another turn off the wheel. Welcome back dude.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Brown Belt)


Warm Up:

I decided to take a different approach with the warm up tonight just to freshen things up. We started off with about five laps of the mat to get the blood pumping. Then stopped and did some star jumps, some running man jumps (my name, not official), limbered up the ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbows, arms, neck. Then we got on the floor and did a load of hip escapes, then a load of Upa bridge escapes, then a load of triangles. From there we finished off with assorted legs stretches.


Techniques:

Ian arrived in time for the techniques so he started us off with a nifty choke alternative from attacking the back. You've got the opponents back, sat up with a seat belt grip and both hooks in. You feed the underhook arm right across the guys body and grab the sleeve cuff of the overhook arm, then pass the overhook arm behind the opponents head so you have a Rear Mount Ezekiel. To finish the move well you just need to lean back, the leverage giving you the hard choke. Nice move.

I drilled this with Dan Foster. We played around with it for a while and found that if you clench your fist when grabbing the sleeve cuff it becomes a carotid artery choke so the guy doesn't realise he's getting choked until his head starts getting fuzzy and by then it's too late.


Ian's next technique was just a basic Rear Naked Choke putting emphasis on the clenching down with the elbow, into the opponent's chest. Same set up as before but this time you get the overhook around the opponents neck and ensure you bring that elbow down hard into his chest. You put the hand of that choking arm into the elbow crook of your other arm and then close that second arm and pass the forearm behind the head and pressure the head forward. Most guys will tap at this point if you have the technique in tight but if not you just need to lean back while bending forward. This move is an old friend to any long time Jiu Jitsu practitioner but it is amazing how repeatedly drilling it under good instruction sharpens up your technique. It's easy to forget after a while that the move comes on stronger with the elbow crushing down into the chest.
I drilled this one and the rest of the lesson with Marcus Hedley.


The next move was a technique I'd not seen before and smacks of a Bow and Arrow variation. Hence why I loved it. Same set up as before, this time getting an overhook arm across the opponents front to get a decent collar grip. With your other arm, you reach across as if to go for the opposite collar for a rear gi choke or something but the guy blocks your arm with his far side arm, so you can grab the gi sleeve of that arm and pull it tight across him, then lean back and off to the side and pass the leg on the choking arm side over the shoulder (as if for the Bow and Arrow finish) and pull on the choke. Tap city. Very nice move.
Drilled this move with Marcus too. After our training Tuesday and some of the drilling today my neck is uber fooked thanks to Marcus' spiffy new "sandpaper" Koral gi. I am in pain.


Ian changed it up for the next technique, going for a Darce Choke. starting with you opponent under your side control, the guy bursts up with his arms as if to hip escape but you catch him in the movement and overhook his top arm and pass it right through across his body to pass out between his head and shoulder. You then close the other arm around around the hand/wrist of the choking arm and press the hand of the closing arm on his back. To finish this move you curl into a ball and move toward the opponent then wrap your top leg over his legs. Tight choke. Very nice.


Following on from that Ian showed us the Anaconda Choke from Single Leg Takedown Defence. First off he showed it from if the opponent is attempting to single leg you from Turtle. You've sprawled to defend and managed to pass one of your arms between his nearside head and shoulder to reach under across the chest and grab him at the arm pit on the other side of his body. You can then rest your weight on his back and kick the leg leg he has secured hard backwards to break his grip, continuing the downward pressure so his arms are stretched out. From there you can push the arm further through to close your other arm around it (same as for the Darce). You now switch your hips so they are facing against the choke and barrel roll backward using your legs to push you over so the opponent come over the topof your head and back down on the other side. Then you can close your body in toward your opponent by balling up and wrapping the top leg over for the finish. The move is basically the same for the standing single but with more sprawling necessary.


Rolling:

My first roll was against Marcus and as I've been rolling a lot against him this week it hardly felt like we'd stopped. I pulled guard straight off then got a sweep, attempted to come up into side control to which Marcus blocked and recovered guard. Then Marcus got me with a sweep and spent the rest of the round trying to pass my guard while I tried to catch him with a sub. Good round. I look forward to Monday and Tuesday for more.


Second roll was against Rob. Rob's an old boy and a white belt so I try to go quite easy on him but he's pretty strong from years of being a storesman and tries to muscle you about so I find his pressuring causes me to go faster at it. Because of this I managed to sweep him and gain mount fairly quickly. A quick bit of fakery for a choke and Rob over commited his arm to pull me off so I managed to switch for an arm bar. We reset and I pulled guard then managed to get him to an arm bar situation bringing Rob down onto his back with the gaining of the position. Rob managed to defend it admirably though, rolling his shoulder under so I ended up having to recover to S Mount or lose the position entirely. We finished the round with me attacking his arm again and then trying for the mounted triangle.

Third go was against one of the newer guys Chris. I'd heard Chris did some MMA stuff so I thought I'd see how much he'd managed to bring over. I pulled guard and him, dummied and arm bar and then set up the omoplata )as per Andre Galvao's method I'd previously been trying out with Marcus a couple of weeks ago) for the tap. I  spent the rest of the round teaching Chris a few easy things to enhance his game as I noticed he was 'another sit in my guard and try and choke me' type. I taught him a quick and easy guard break and pass.

Next round was against Rich Presley. I jumped straight to guard here and was just trying to catch him in various different subs which Rich defended well. Rich nearly passed my guard at one point but I was able to handily recover by going inverted and then coming back around the other side. I threatened a Pace Choke at one point which Rich was wary of. Other than that it was a fair stalemate.


My last round was against the returning Glenn Cutter, who I thoroughly enjoyed rolling against. Glenn rolls with a furious pace and doesn't seem to gas out so if you're going against him, you're going for the full round. I pulled guard first off and fended off his admirably ferocious attempts at passing my guard. I was able to pull in close at one point and tried out the Kimura trick I wrote of in my last blog. He had a hold on my gi pant so I grabbed his hand and leant forward, reached over and by the he realised what I was going for I had the arm secured and was angled out to the side. A little bit of pressure and I got the tap. From the reset he jumped guard quick and managed the quickest scissor sweep I think I've ever encountered. I quickly managed to recover guard and the round played out with me defending. my guard.

Amazing session tonight and the class almost seems like it has a renewed vigour to it. I really hope we can keep some or all of these new guys around, train them up for the future. Maybe get a decent team together.

Ah well, roll on Monday (could that be a pun??) \m/

Two Man Training. 14 and 15-5-12

In my ever increasing endeavour to fit mat time in to my hectic family and work lifestyle I have taken to visiting the dojo at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, with my good buddy, Marcus Hedley, for a bit of two man training two days a week. What this basically consists of is Marcus and I bringing some pre-thought out techniques along for learning/drilling, after which we ragdoll the shit out of each other across the mats with a lot of sparring.


Monday:

Now this week I was a bit of a slacker in the pre-preparing techniques department, falling back on Marcus' foresight in gathering a few moves for us.

First up he'd been watching a lot of Kurt Osiander stuff recently on YouTube and wanted to try some of his moves. We started off with a failed Armbar from Guard - Transition to back. Thanks to the beauty of YouTube, I can actually show the technique so I don't have to go into too much description. The key thing is to ensure his secured arm is pulled through and to your nearside so when you open the arm bar position you can easily swing around to his back. I was very impressed with the simplicity of this transition and can easily envision me using it a lot as I often take the chance on an Arm Bar from Guard so the move gives me a good option after the opponents stacked me.

The second move we drilled was another Kurt Osiander. This time a North South Kimura Escape to Arm Lock. The technique came from the last 40 seconds of the next video that Kurt refers to as his "bonus move". Basically the opponents got you set up for the North South Kimura, you block by grabbing your gi lapel (Kurt believes this to be the best way to block a North South Kimura) and grab his outside leg gi pant with your free hand (on that side). Using that grip you can push on his leg and pop your head out of the hole. Now push yourself up toward him so your head is in his lap and pull your feet in tight to your ass for the bridge. Now bridge up (bulldoze as Kurt puts it) and turn toward him so he flips over on his back and you have his arm perfectly set up for the arm bar. Lovely technique this one.

For the next move we were doing the kimura from closed guard, but with this it was demonstrating how it can still be hit without the opponent having to put the hand to the ground. The opponent has his hand on your leg, you just sit right up for the wrap over hook and form the figure four with your other hand grabbing his wrist and pushing his arm out a bit and turning so you're perpendicular to him for the easy kimura. For so long I'd laboured under the idea that the Kimura was unobtainable unless the hand is on the floor or at least away from your bodies. This was a great way of catching an opponent unaware and could also be backed up by an omoplata if it fails.
No vid for this one though. Sorry.


Neither Marcus nor I could remember any of the other techniques we did on the Monday (if indeed there were any, pretty sure there was though).

We finished the session off with a healthy dose of rolling. Very hard, intense back and forth round and a good 25 minutes too. Glad to say my grappling cardio is picking up really well.


Tuesday:

Marcus got his brand spanking new Koral Gi delivered Tuesday morning so we gave No Gi a miss this week in favour of letting him try out his new Gi. Pretty cool gi, very light weight and nice fit. Bastard.

We started off the day with a Robson Moura Arm Bar from Side Control. Featured in the first 2 minutes 45 of the below YouTube video, the move is pretty awesome and offers a great deal of control through the crucifix position you attain. I didn't realise there was more to the instruction until I found the video tonight but we had theorised that there was loads of options from the set up position.

The next technique we tried our hands at was the Helicopter Arm Bar. This move is awesome, we both loved it and if one day I actually get to pull it off in live training or (total pipe dream) in competition it would be a feckin dream come true. Start with opponent in your guard, then secure hand holds on his gi cuffs and get your feet to his hips. Then, wait for the moment when he stands up and pull him toward you while push up your legs so you have his whole weight up in the air balanced on your two feet. From there you just remove one leg so he drops down on one side whilst steering him with his arms into the arm bar position. I could not love this move more. We are talking Disco Inferno!! Love it.

This clip of Rosendo Dias demonstrating the Helicopter Arm Bar comes courtesy of 3GJiujitsu

Next up was a little move I saw in a copy of Jiu Jitsu Style magazine. Braulio Estima demonstrates a flashy escape from Side Control which I've always found a pretty cool and amazing little trick. I mean, if your gonna escape from Side Control, why not chuck an Arm Bar in there too :oD.  You start with the guy having a good side control position on you but you've got your forearms in place to start a traditional escape. With this though, you push the guy down and away a little to create space and bring your legs up. You bring the near side leg up and tuck it in so the knee is tight against his ribs. With the offside leg (the one furthest from his torso) you bring that up on the outside of his arm and then under and around his head being sure to trap the arm in place. Whilst bringing that leg up you should be securing the guys trapped arm with your off side arm. Once all this is in place you can apply pressure to it for the Arm Bar. I could not find a Gi demo of this move but a No Gi one will suffice.

Video comes courtesy of NewcastleJudo.

 

I can not fully remember the details of a couple of other techniques we did so I will not post them until a later date (when I've had a chance to drill them further). These techniques were a Spider Guard Pass, a Triangle from Turtle Guard and a pass of Turtle Guard to a Head and Arm Triangle.

We finished of the sesh with another exceptionally high tempo roll that lasted about half and hour. By the end we were both totalled. An absolutely fantastic couple of days of training though leaving me waiting for Thursday's class with a near rabid fervour.

Keep on rolling guys. \m/

Checkmat - Bristol 8-5-12

I took a full car up to the LA Gym in Bristol for the Tuesday night Bjj session at Checkmat - Bristol Combat Legion. The usual faces of me, Ian and Marcus were joined by Dan Foster and Justin Thomas, regulars of Ian's Thursday night class down Sweat FA Weston. So the banter in the car was good instead of the usual - me talking at Ian and Marcus for 20 odd miles.

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter - Checkmat.


Warm Up:

Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10x8, Squats 10x 8,  Crunches 10 x 7 (Stupid big classes :o|), then some leg stretching.



Techniques:

First technique of the night was how to force the opponent to give up the arm for an Arm Bar from Mount. Starting with the mount on your opponent, with one of your hands, reach over and cross grab the guys non opposing shoulder (so if using your right hand you'd grab his right shoulder) and crush your forearm down across his throat. This move is never going to get a tap from anyone as the block for it is instinctive. The opponent reaches over with his opposite side hand and pulls on the crushing arm at the elbow to relieve that pressure on his neck. In doing so he exposes a lot of his arm and lifts his shoulder partially off the ground. Now you can secure his blocking arm by releasing the neck crush  and reaching through the gap to the high arm/shoulder and turning your body in toward his shoulder to stop the opponent from pulling his arm away. Whilst doing this you also switch your far side leg (the leg on the far side of his body when you turn) to point up towards his head. Now you change the arm you have securing his arm over (you should now have your arm nearer his head threaded into his endangered arm elbow crook), and use the newly freed arm to either grab his gi pants at the near side knee or post out behind you. To finish this move you just need to bring the other leg over his head and lean back, clutching the opponents arm tight to your chest so you can use the power of your whole body to extend his arm. Clench your knees together tight so you only need to lightly pull down on the arm to finish. If your legs are too lose you have to pull right back on the arm and over extend your hips to get the tap.
This move has been a staple of my Bjj repertoire for years and I cannot even begin to remember how many guys I've tapped with this exact technique. I drilled this move with Marcus.


Moving on from there, the standard defence against the above arm bar is to clutch the endangered arm with the other arm. The next set of three mini techniques were some tips Ian gave us for breaking the opponents arms apart when he uses this method to block the arm bar.
The first was a simple wrist lock. The opponent is holding on to the secured arm with his other arm for dear life, trying to puzzle out a way to escape the imminent danger. All you need do is grab the hand of the secure arm and pull it down, bending it at the wrist, as if you're trying to get his hand to touch his elbow crook. With the elbow of that arm firmly against your stomach there is nowhere for him to move to relieve the pressure. A submission is imminent. This move is sometimes known as a goose neck wristlock.
The second method to break the grip is to just swim your free arm inside the opponents clenched arm ensemble and then back away, leaning in that direction too (still clenching the arm to you) to snap the grip apart.
The third method Ian demonstrated (on me, the bastard) was to bring his arm right into the crook of the opponents secured elbow and use his other arm to crush that arm together (so the wrist pushes toward the shoulder) closing the elbow so the arm left inside expands the elbow joint for lots of pain.
Three good techniques for the arm bar clutch break. I drilled these techniques with Rich Long. I found the first two fairly easy but the third took a bit of exploring arm positioning to get the most effective hold on.


Ian showed us one more technique to combat someone blocking the arm bar attempt. This time, you've got to the arm bar set up where the arm is secure (but clenched to defend) and both your legs are over the opponent to prevent his easy escape. Sometimes people have a tendency to try and push on the far side arm at the bicep with their far side (leg side) foot. This technique works when the guys shakes your foot off leaving both your legs positioned above (closer to his head) the far side arm. You can now move your near side leg (the one over his head) out at roughly a 45 degree angle to his head, then reach behind his head with your near side arm to grab the your other leg at the ankle and pull that leg partially around the opponents head, keeping your arm very tight to the back of his head. Some guys might tap at this point to the arm and leg triangle but the real choke comes when you wrap your other leg around the choking leg to form the traditional triangle figure four for the tight choke. If you're still having problems finishing it from there you can move your ass away from the opponent, increasing the pressure on the neck.
Me and Rich both found this move easy to get to grips with and very effective.


Next up was a Kimura from Half Guard top. In your opponent's Half Guard, you have managed to isolate his arm (the off side arm so you are leant right across his body, with him flattened out) off to one side. You secure it for the Kimura using the traditional overwrap figure four arm hold and pull the arm in close to your body. You then pull the opponent up a bit so you can roll over on your shoulder and head to come up on the side bringing the opponent forward slightly so you can finish the Kimura behind his back. Ian suggests crossing your legs as you go over so the guy can't push forward to roll you over and escape the hold. Marcus and his drilling partner, Shabba, also discovered that if you bring your knee up once you've gone over the opponent stops dead in his tracks and the Kimura almost finishes itself.


Ian's final technique of the evening was a Kimura reversal. From a Half Guard bottom Kimura, the opponent has your arm locked up on the other side of your body to the trapped leg. To block the hold you need to grab your gi pants to give you some time to reach under inside and grab the secured arm by the wrist. Now you can lean in close to the opponent while you pull the secured arm up, so the opponent's figure fouring arm get pulled up uncomfortably until he's forced to tap.
Me and Rich both initially had the problem that we were just pulling the arm up with out leaning in. The opponent can easily slip the hold in that situation.


Rolling:

First roll was against Rich Long. And I have to say, Rich has improved A LOT over the last few months. Dedication has done his game the world of good. I started off by push him backwards and attacking his guard. I managed to pass briefly to side control but Rich recovered well back to half guard. While I tried to pass his half guard I think I over commited as Rich managed to sweep me over to mount, although I Upa'd out of it in super quick time and finished the round trying to pass his guard again.

Second roll was against Shabba. It was a back and forth affair with some sweeps and passes for each of us. I threatened an Americana at one point, shabba threatened a triangle at one point. Other than that it was fairly even.

Third roll was against a guy whose name I can't remember. I attacked straight off and passed his guard to side control. I broke off then and pulled guard instead to work on my bottom game. While we were struggling in this position I came up against a floor to ceiling speedball half garrotting my neck. We could of moved but I figured the obstruction could one day represent a table leg or other obstruction so I  should try and work my way around it. Unfortunately it allowed his to pass to side control and my best method of escape actually required me to remove my head from my shoulders. Consequentially he trapped me in a head and arm triangle which I was able to "answer the phone" to block. I was just working on a hip twist escape when time was called.

I wasn't very impressed with my own performance that session. I was, however, very impressed with Big Justin's progress. He went up to a class where there's a considerably higher level of grappler and managed to come away without getting tapped. That's a very good step up in game for him.

That's it for me for Bjj for the week :o( My next session will be with Marcus on Monday. I wish I could train more \m/

Weston Bjj - 3/5/12

Thursday night at Sweat FA was a particularly brilliant lesson. Only a few of the usual faces but a couple of new guys turned up and a few returning guys who've only attended a couple of sessions so are "as good as new". Still, a good buzz about the class going in, everyone was nice and chatty during the warm up. Good to have a friendly class where everyone's comfortable talking about non Jiu Jitsu related stuff together. Makes things seem a bit closer knit.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, UK.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter.


Warm Up:

Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 20x3, Squats 20x 3,  Crunches 20 x 3 (Ian was on one), then some leg stretching.






Techniques:


The first couple of techniques Ian gave us were from a Rear Mount back controlling position. You are sat up with the opponent sat with his back to you between your legs. You have both hooks in (your legs are around his waist with the feet "hooked" in behind his knees on the inside of his legs). You have your arms under-hooking him (underneath his arms) with your hands gripping his lapels. This is the starting position for most of the lessons techniques.


The first sub shown involved you pulling the lapel out on one side (same side) with the underhook and bringing your other arm out from underhooking to overhooking (passing the arm around over his arm) so you can grab the opposite side lapel quite deep at the collar and pull it taught against the opponents neck. Now with the other arm you reach up and pass the hand behind the opponent's head (as it's an underhook you should still have the opponents arm trapped in there). To apply the pressure here you just need to lean back while pushing forward with the arm behind his head for the nice tight Arm in Gi Choke from Rear Mount.

Ian showed us the second sub in the same demo so we could drill the two at the same time. The second technique was a straight forward Rear Naked Choke. From the start up position, bring one of your under hooked arms out and over hook to wrap around the opponents so the hand is coming up near the opponents opposite shoulder. Then you get your other arm out and put the hand of the choking arm on the bicep of the tightening arm and then close the tightening arm and pass that hand around the back the guys head. To finish the move, tighten the choking arm around the neck while clamping it down against his chest and leaning forward into the move to push pressure on at the back of his head. This move is one of the most commonly used submissions from Back Control and is a firm favourite for MMAers.

I was drilling the nights stuff with Marcus. We both had these techniques down already so we just drilled a bit and talked crap.


For the next technique, Ian split the class up and dealt with the new guys for a bit and let me show the Bow and Arrow choke to the more seasoned side of the class. From the start up position you present one lapel and remove the other under hook to bring it back over the that shoulder and get a grip on the opposite presented lapel (doesn't have to be particularly deep). You then lean out to the side where you haven't got the overhook lapel grip and grab the opponents under knee or gi pants on that side and pass your leg on the other side over the opponents shoulder to stretch the choke taught. This is my favourite rear mount choke technique. I love it and usually try for it when ever I have someone's back. It is a choke you have to be careful with though as a lot of guys have tried to fight it for too long and gone under. You need to be aware of your sparring partners consciousness when applying that choke.

Me and Marcus have drilled the hell out of this technique over the last couple of years so we were happy to try different ways of blocking or countering it. One that I found quite successful was to pull down on the lapel from underneath where the choker has his grip, which takes a lot of the pressure off, giving you the opportunity to scoot your but down a fraction and reach up with your other arm to push it against his elbow and release the head. This makes the whole sub fall apart and puts you in a good position to attack. I also found an interesting kimura variation from that escape that I couldn't even begin to describe without doing it again. We also drilled arm bar counters on the escape.


For the next sub Ian showed us the simple yet very effective Rear Mount to Arm Bar. A move I am very familiar with being as that it was my go to move from Rear Mount for ages. Until everyone started realising this and blocking the arm bar meaning I'd just given up my highly controlling position and ended up with my opponent in my guard. Anyway, from the start up position, your opponent is blocking out any collar control or your ability to cross his neck. With one of your under hook arms, reach up and grab the guy's shoulder (effectively securing his arm). You then lean out to that side, pushing on the side of his head with your other arm, and then bring your far leg out and over the top of his head and lean back, pulling the secured arm out straight for the arm bar. Brilliant technique, simple yet effective if you get it on an unsuspecting opponent. As I said before though, fail and you've lost position and may well look a bit of a pillock.


The last technique was a real peach. Ian's disco move of the day was a Rear Triangle/Armbar option from Rear Mount (with kick out). From the start up, you reach up to the shoulder as for the Rear Mount Arm Bar and the opponent decides to hit the ill-advised MMA escape where you drive back on his legs to flatten you on the floor. To counter this, you remove your foot hooks and put your feet under his legs in the crooks of his knees and kick out firing the guy back forward to the seated position with the additional bonus of his underhooked arm pulled right up toward you. Now you just need to wrap your leg (the one on the other side to his raised arm) over the shoulder and past his head and raised arm. You then escape you hip slightly to the other side and use the leg on that side to wrap around your first leg forming the triangle. If you've done this right but you're having trouble hitting the triangle the arm bar is right there too. In fact both are so easy to attain you actually find yourself accidentally hitting one when you're trying to drill the other.
Two very effective techniques and definitely my favourite techniques of the night. Me and Marcus drilled the hell out of these, I just hope I manage to retain the knowledge for when the adrenaline is pumping. I'd love to hit that move.


Rolling:

We didn't have loads of time at the end of the class for rolling but we still got a few in. I managed to roll with the more experienced guys in the class which is good. I don't mind showing the newer guys stuff but if feels good to let loose with some full sparring.

Rolled against Marcus first which was a back and forth affair starting with me in guard, then hit a sweep on him, passed to side, went to North South, Marcus pulled a pretty wicked escape out of the hat and swept me and we finished the round shortly after.

Next up was Dan Foster. Dan is a really good challenge for me and I'm loving rolling against him regularly as we are of comparable weight and level. I attacked straight from the start and managed to pull Dan's leg out and push him back forcing his to assume guard. I then attacked his guard managing to pass it ever so briefly to side control before he recovered. Eventually Dan got a sweep on me jumping on to mount, also very briefly, before I escaped to half guard. I was in the process of hitting a Half Guard sweep when the round ended. A good furious paced roll there. I look forward to our next.

After Dan I was up against Big Justin. What Justin gives up in technique he manages to make up for in pure power. I went straight into open guard and tried to set up various arm bar or omoplata attacks. I very nearly had a gogoplata on him (which would have been a first) but he muscled out of it. I was very pleased that Justin was attacking a lot too, trying to pass my guard constantly with out even trying his old tactic of trying to choke me from within my guard (it's never worked). Justin's game is improving loads and he was really trying some well thought out passes, all the while defending my sub attempts. I eventually hit a sweep on him to side control which he powered out of to get guard. I was then attacking his guard as the round played out.

Now my final roll of the night was against Ian and I was insistent on not getting tapped this time. Jumping straight to guard I first fought off some of Ian's pass attempts before I managed a hook sweep on him. As he went down he tried to get a cheeky little Achilles Ankle Lock on me but I leant forward to take the pressure off the hold and pulled out. I then tried to pass his guard with a few different passes without much joy before trying a feeble effort at my own Achilles. Ian easily broke out of this and nearly hit me with a scissor sweep before I was able to base out at the last second. We then went in to a kind of 50/50 position but with me standing. I could feel Ian reaching down for my leg to go for another Achilles attempt or a sweep of some kind and I had his leg secure so I decided to slap on an old school Toe Hold Ankle Lock (Ian is a Brown Belt after all so it's not really cheating). Ian tapped to this, making that the first time I've ever tapped Ian (or any Brown Belt) out. Result. I think I'll go in to hiding for a few weeks now until all this has blown over :o)

Anyway, as I said, brilliant lesson. A couple of great moves. Got to teach a move. Got a cheeky tap. And I went home and had a Caribbean Curry after (it was ok). What more can I guy ask for.

An image of purely coincidental relevance and importance.

 

\m/

Two Man Training 30th April and 1 May.

In between dealing with Highways Issues caused by the horrendous weather we're having here in the South West of England, I have managed to get a little bit of lunchtime Jiu Jitsu in with my good buddy, Marcus, down at Sweat FA Weston Super Mare over the last two days.

This week we came more prepared for our Monday session and after a vigorous warm up we went into some pre-thought out techniques.

We started off by doing a few sweeps from different types of guard. The first one was from an open guard against an opponent who has stood up with your legs riding up high on him (as if he stood in closed guard, then broke the legs apart). You secure one of his legs by underhooking it with your same side arm, then you roll backward to come up on your feet with his leg in your hand. I've kind of simplified the description, but to be honest, it is remarkably simple to pull off as long as you're agile enough to get the backward roll at a decent speed. For such a simple move it looks really disco too.


The next sweep we hit was from Spider Guard. From the standard Spider Guard position (both cuffs secured, both feet at elbow crooks), drop one of your feet from it's position and press it on the opponents opposite side hip so the top of your foot is against or just above his hip bone. Use this to swivel away from the opponent so your body is perpendicular to him. Then you simultaneously release the cuff of the arm that you've just removed the foot from and reach down and grab the near side leg (by gi or underhook), whilst pulling the still secured cuff with that hand and pushing away with the leg that's still securing that arm to stretch the opponents body out a bit. To finish the sweep you just need to pull/push down with the arm and leg on his secured arm while guiding/assisting his body over with your other leg and your other arm. The opponent flips neatly over on to his back and you come up in a position that lends itself to a knee on belly opportunity.


We then worked on a  De La Riva sweep as shown in a video on YouTube by the man himself, Ricardo De La Riva. You need to have the De La Riva hook push far through to hook around the outside of the opponents far side hip. You then secure the gi at the knee with your hook side hand whilst gripping the near side collar lapel with your other hand. From there you just pull hard toward you with both hands while kicking out with your hook. Your opponent is deposited on his back with you just having to pop up into a top position. This is one of those scramble for advantage sweeps where if your quick you can jump to mount or side control, if the opponent is quick you could end up in just going into his guard.


Moving away from guard work for the next technique we drilled a Monoplata from Mount. Quite similar to a Marcelo Garcia sub we were drilling last week, you start off by forcing your way inside the opponents arms and crouching in close so he ends up in a position where he's hugging you. You then bring a leg up and trap the arm on that side deep behind you. Use the raised leg to push into the opponent so he raises up on his side facing away from you pushing his face down away from you, then whilst falling backward, move your raised leg up to press the top of the foot against his head (need to ensure everything is held in tight or the whole move falls apart). To finish the hold you press the trapping leg in against the shoulder, pushing down to increase the pressure and get the tap. It took us quite a while to get this move to work, more often it was feeling like an arm bar, until we worked out foot positioning and stuff. Nice move, doubt I'll ever hit it.


We moved on to polishing up on Gogoplata's. Starting from a failed omoplata attempt due to the opponent posturing up so you can't push him down to the floor, you thread the leg that's over his shoulder, under his chin and reach over the top of his head for the toes with the near side arm to clamp his head inside your leg and arm combination. To finish the hold you use your other hand to push against your heel and pull the foot toward you with your hand whilst pressing down with that arm to choke him for the tap. Me and Marcus absolutely loved this move and I hope that I can pull it off one day in sparring.
We also did a variation where, instead of reaching over the top of the head with your hand, you lean back and bring your other leg up and over the top of the head to press down putting an immense amount of pressure on. Another excellent move. Can't wait to try it Thursday.


That was as many of the techniques from Monday as I can remember. Marcus'll probably tell me what I forgot if he bothers to read this but we had a very healthy dose of sparring directly after and it kind of blew the mind out a bit.


As for Tuesday, we decided to do a bit of No-Gi work as it's a part of our game that's severely lacking. In fact I have only had 2 No-Gi lessons in my entire time training and they were both at seminars. So to say I need to work on my No-Gi may be a massive understatement but it is something I need to work on if I want to be a more complete Bjj disciple. At the end of the day if I was attacked at a bus stop by some nut case, I don't think he's going to be nice enough as to put on a Gi jacket first so I need to get experience sans uniform.


We started out with some takedowns including the double leg takedown, the single leg takedown and two other single leg takedowns with trips.  We then worked on sprawling against the double leg, then against the single leg and then we did the single leg sprawl to super disco front roll to omoplata (a personal favourite of mine :o).

After that we were working on arm switching, where you're in the position for the arm bar but the opponent's got it blocked well by holding with his other arm. From there you maintain the hold on his arm with your head side arm (the arm closer to his head) and lean forward pushing your weight down on him, focus additional weight by straight arming with your other arm and pushing it against his far shoulder. Then, very quickly, swivel your body around so you turn toward away from his legs and carry on around to face the direction opposite that which you started in and secure the arm on that side with your arm that was previously pressing on his shoulder. Fall back as usual and extend hips to finish.

Another way of countering the arm bar block was to thread your leg side leg (your leg that is nearer his legs) through between his arms and up over his shoulder so it's near his head. Then reach under his head with your head-side arm to grab your leg the other side of his head. It's possible to finish the move from there by pulling on the leg, for a leg and arm triangle but the preferred (and tighter) way of finishing the sub is to use your hand to pull the leg around and wrap your other leg around the first to finish the triangle. Brilliant.


Once again, we ended the session with a healthy amount of rolling. I have to admit that the No-Gi rolling is a lot faster paced and controlling your opponent's position from top control is really hard. Especially against Marcus who is one slippery git to pin down. We've both agreed though, that we'll try and fit a No-Gi session in regularly. I let the gym buzzing and dying for more action. I can't wait until Ian's class Thursday \m/